I have NO idea why that DVD is called "Beginners and Beyond". The first set (Basic Spinal Series) should be done slowly and gently. Although it is a stand-alone kriya, it is often used in live classes as a warm up for other longer and more difficult yoga sets. Ana moves at lightning speed and people think they have to match her. They shouldn't. Treat this workout as a warm up and go slooowly and limit your range of motion.
The second set (5 Tibetan Rites) is an interesting and challenging body weight workout, especially if you do all the reps of each exercise. It is NOT for beginners--I guess this is the "beyond" part. These exercises can tweak your back and other joints if you are not already used to vigorous yoga, if you do too many reps, and/or have not warmed up sufficiently. I really like it, but it has no place on a DVD with "beginner" in the title.
When Yogi Bhajan came to the US in 1969 or so and started teaching kundalini yoga, don't forget that his students were people in their late teens and early twenties. Many young healthy people tend to be able to do challenging kundalini yoga kriyas fairly easily--I saw this in classes. It's quite another thing for people of any age who have pre-existing injuries and other conditions and/or haven't exercised in awhile, especially if there are no real modifications taught for the exercises in the kriyas.
I wish Nirvair would put out a kundalini yoga series that is for people with injuries, older people who haven't done yoga before, etc. He'd be perfect for that kind of project.
Back to the title of the thread--today I did one of the Mark Lauren "You Are Your Own Gym" workouts and decided to tack on a YouTube workout by Jessica Smith titled "30 Minute Knee Friendly Total Body Barre Workout". Call me humbled--it was Jessica's workout that did it. I was pre-fatigued from Mark's workout, but the reason Jessica's workout was so humbling is that at the gym I am used to lifting heavier weights with fewer reps. My arms were fried by 3 pound weights because of all the reps. It
is knee-friendly, too--it is the only barre-type workout I have done that hasn't killed my knees. It's not a Burr Leonard-level workout, especially for the lower body, but I liked it. Plus, who can argue with free?